Wednesday, May 1, 2013

365 Comics...121: Animal Man #20 (2013)

With all the Rotworld stuff dominating the series for the past 15 issues or so one could almost forget that Jeff Lemire had set Buddy Baker up as the star of an independent dramatic film about the life of a superhero. Issue #6 showed off a part of the film (as illustrated by John Paul Leon) and this issue continues with the rest. As a film it strives for a sort of The Wrestler vibe but as a story it doesn't have enough unique dramatic punch to elevate it to the ''Academy" level... which Is one of the dangers Lemire faced in shoving the reader the actual film, that the "show within a show wouldn't live up to the reputation it needs to have to keep the rest of the story credible. A SAG award or like a Cable Ace maybe... an LA film critics award... you know, small accolades, but an academy nod is pushing it. I get why its being pushed but I worry it's too far in an overdramatic direction. But we will see. Otherwise Animal Man has survived the elimination review it was going through unknowingly this issue. We'll put you back down for review in 5 issues.